Thursday, January 15, 2009

Turn-A-Square, or two...

Thanks to all of you that gave me the many recs for what to do with two skeins in Malabrigo in Apple Green. I learned about so many new patterns and have queued many of them. In the end, Earthchick and her Scrunchable Scarf suggestion have carried the day. Thanks Stacey!

I am, at bottom, a hat knitter. I just really can never have too many hats at my disposal--I even made a little private (pointless?) vow to wear a different hat to campus every day this month. And since I am teaching a M-W-F schedule plus a day for advising and other duties, that's 16. Well I have just increased my chances of realizing my secret plan by two, as I proudly add these two darlings into the rotation:

This is the perfect project that helps you remember what you loved about the Noro in the first place. The sheen of the Cash Iroha + the tripped-out color changes of the Silk Garden = extreme hat joy. Their gauges are spot on with one another and so pairing them together is a cinch. Think of this combo as the Garanimals of the yarn world. I am now crestfallen as finding that link has caused me to discover that this brand is now sold only at Satan's Lair, i.e. Walmart. Is nothing sacred? Is the world of my youth completely gone?

The SpecsPattern: Turn-A-Square by Jared FloodYarn: Hat #1 (light green), Silk Garden #242 and Cash Iroha #106; Hat #2 (dark green), Silk Garden #255 and Cash Iroha #100.Needles; Size 6 and 7, HiyaHiya circs.Time: Each hat takes basically two days of leisurely knitting, with time off for other projects. Check the name of the blog, people.

I could have easily entitled this post 'What a difference a green makes', as the two greens here couldn't be more dissimilar. On the skein I much prefer the lighter shade, but knitted up I can see that the darker shade has its merits as well. Different strokes and all that...

One of the most appealing aspects of this project is that it introduced me to the jogless stripes technique. Umm HELLO where have you been all my life, jogless stripes technique? I can't believe I had never tried this or heard about it. It has improved the joins to the point that you almost don't see them. Man I wish I had this technique back when I was doing the Kauni cardi and was getting trashed on the Ravelry discussion board for trying to not make a cardigan and proposed knitting it in the round. But what about the jogs?!!! The board became alarmed, my knowledge was questioned. Humiliated and shamed, I gave up. But if I would have had this technique maybe I could have triumphed over the Rav trolls. Whatevs.

This is a great pattern, and I hope to make bunch more, just not now. Tiennie, how do you do it?

28 comments:

OMG, I'm so excited that you picked the pattern I suggested! Woohoo. Up with Scrunchable Scarves! It really is the perfect marriage of yarn to pattern, yes? I can't wait to see yours in the Apple Green!

And speaking of green - WOW I love your hats. This hat is in my queue, but I got sidetracked by the Almost-Famous Luggy Bonnet, which I now have to make a third one of. One of these days, though, I'm definitely going to do a Turn the Square. Your look fantastic.

I'm curious... what do you think about the raglan decreases without the neutral stitch? I'm somewhat of a loosey goosey knitter and I find the ssk folllowed by k2tog leaves a little ladder in between the stitches. Did you? Am I a tard? Oh, and I LOVE the jogless join!